Australia’s hospitals are currently busy, and, if this were a normal year, they would expect to be busier as the flu season kicks in. The COVID-19 crisis is on top of that and will put greater pressure on hospitals, especially public hospitals.

Firstly, emergency departments may get deluged by people seeking testing. This is a poor use of emergency resources, so governments are scrambling to encourage people either not to test – if they are of low risk – or to use other testing services such as drive-through clinics or specialist fever clinics.